Local Responder Michele A. Riley Attends Homeland Security Training - Archived

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Local Responder Michele A. Riley Attends Homeland Security Training

Bardstown, Ky. (February 5, 2016) — Emergency Responder Michele A. Riley from Flaget Memorial Hospital recently completed training offered by the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), in Anniston, Ala. The CDP is operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and is the only federally-chartered Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) training facility in the nation.
 
“This was an incredible experience and I encourage all emergency service providers to attend this training,” Riley said. “The week of lectures and exercises taught me to consider everyone in the community as a vital part of readiness and preparation, should an emergency situation occur.”
 
The CDP develops and delivers advanced training for emergency response providers, emergency managers and other government officials from state, local and tribal governments. The CDP offers more than 40 training courses focusing on incident management, mass casualty response and emergency response to a catastrophic natural disaster or terrorist act. Training at the CDP campus is federally funded at no cost to state, local and tribal emergency response professionals or their agency.
 
“We are changing the way that we prepare for emergencies,” said Riley. “Emergency planning now includes natural disasters like tornadoes and floods, as well as emerging disasters, like pandemics and terror attacks. Planning takes a full-circle approach, including medical centers, business and other critical services such as power, fuel sources and communication, to name a few.”
 
During the training, Riley served as the public information officer in incident command. She noted that the role opened her eyes to the challenge and importance of communicating accurate information in a timely way to responders and the public. “The newscasters sure make it look easy,” she said.
 
Resident training at the CDP includes healthcare and public health courses at the Noble Training Facility, the nation’s only hospital dedicated to training healthcare professionals in disaster preparedness and response.
 
A number of resident training courses culminate at the CDP’s Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological (COBRA) Training Facility. The COBRA is the nation’s only facility featuring civilian training exercises in a true toxic environment using chemical agents. The advanced hands-on training enables responders to effectively prevent, respond to and recover from real-world incidents involving acts of terrorism and other hazardous materials.
 
Responders participating in CDP training gain critical skills and confidence to respond effectively to local incidents or potential WMD events.
 
Information about CDP training programs can be found at http://cdp.dhs.gov. For more information about the CDP, call 256.847.2212/2316 or email [email protected]. 
 
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